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8.6.07

Ladybug In The Garden

The Ladybug (ladybirds to the British and Australians) is my second favorite garden dweller. Aside from their aesthetic quality I appreciate them for the work they do in the garden to keep the aphids and scale under control. This year I decided to avoid using chemicals in the garden to provide as hospitable home for beneficial insects.

I spent two days stalking and photographing this ladybug in the garden watching it march up and down various plants looking for food. Unfortunately I picked it up on the third day to show it to my nephew and it flew off into the pear tree next door.

Yesterday I noticed a new insect in my garden that I didn't recognize and was about to pull out the gardening gloves and start smashing them when something told me to hold back until I could photograph this bug and get an identification for it. When I was preparing this post on ladybugs I saw a photo of a ladybug in the larva stage and realize that I had come pretty close to squishing future ladybugs. It's a good thing I waited because I will have more ladybugs visiting the garden soon. Check out Wikipedia for more photos and information on ladybugs.

15 comments:

We call our lady bugs - lucky bugs. Last year my DD collected about 50 at the end of the summer - poor things- they didn't like the sun tanning jar too well. I say keep them around cause they eat aphids and are LUCKY!

We have had a fabulous year for ladybird larva here in Suffolk,UK. Never seen so many and fascinating to watch the stages as they turn into ladybirds (sorry forgot you call them ladybugs but all the same thing)

Wow! That is probably the most perfect shot of a ladybug I have seen -- ever! Good going on the decision to stop using chemicals in the garden. May you have lots more beneficial ladybugs in your future!

Sorry for the late reply but I wanted to thank you for the encouragement. It has been hard to keep from using chemicals but I'm finding more time to deal with pests by hand.

Marc,

Sorry for the late reply but you can get the "glossy" look like I did by using your flash settings. I set the flash to go off even though I was photographing outdoors and it was bright enough to make sure the bug wasn't over exposed.

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